>I would counsel the teachers to think carefully about the value of goodwill in a community like Ridgewood, and how quickly that goodwill can be pissed away by shortsighted decisions.
If the teachers don’t want to play, that’s fine with me. They should be spending their free time with friends and families. No big deal. But call this what it is: a job action.
The teachers expected, and were expected by others, to participate in this game. As they did last year, and the year before that. The fact that they refuse to participate this year in order to demonstrate their frustration with contract negotiations constitutes an act of disobedience that the REA thinks will (somehow) improve their bargaining position.
Going forward, I’m not sure that will work.
To have the state teacher’s union rep babble on with baloney about teachers not being “able to volunteer their time [for the basketball game] because they have to focus on gathering the data for the fact-finding process to settle the contract”, is the height of absurdity. Come on now. Does Ms. Coulibaly of the NJEA realize how ignorant she sounds? Does she realize how trivial she makes the REA appear?
The vast majority of Ridgewood’s teachers are tremendous and work very hard at their craft. They deserve whatever contract they can negotiate with the BoE. But I would counsel the teachers to think carefully about the value of goodwill in a community like Ridgewood, and how quickly that goodwill can be pissed away by shortsighted decisions.
